Home Improvements!

At the beginning of the year, Gary and I decided on our top two home improvement projects for 2010: more light in the family room and a remodel of our 1986 fireplace. Here it is, only mid-April, and we've finished both projects! (Are you as shocked as I am?) So if you enjoy seeing pictures of other people's homes, then this post is for you, and I've got some great before and after photos for you. And if not, you have my permission to stop reading now. :)

Project #1: Brighten It Up

If you ever visited our home in Los Osos, you know we were surrounded in natural light all the time--and we loved it. So moving to our new home, with a lot less light, was a little tough to get used to. One of the darkest rooms is the family room, which is where we spend most of our time during the day. We looked into some different options to brighten up the place, and ended up choosing Solatubes. They're a lot like skylights, only smaller. But they let in a lot of light, they're earth-friendly, and (best of all) they're cheaper. :)

On the top is a picture of our family room, taken in the middle of the afternoon, before the Solatubes. Seriously. See the problem? We had two Solatubes put in the room, and the picture on the bottom shows the after.
So much brighter! I no longer have the lights turned on all day. :) We also had one put in our kitchen, to replace the (super ugly) ceiling fan that never worked right anyway.
And, perhaps best of all, we had one put in the guest bathroom. This room is in the center of our house, which means it has no windows. The before shows the dark cave that it was. The after is how it looks now, with no lights on. Loving it!
Project #2: Welcome to 2010

When we chose our new home, I was thrilled to finally have a fireplace. However, I was not thrilled with the ugly 1980's tile and design. Thankfully, the fireplace was able to go from 1986 to 2010 in just a little over a week. Here's the before and after!
One final look at our family room in January (taken with a flash):
And our family room now (with no flash):
Perhaps my favorite part of all: When the fireplace was completely finished and we were standing back to admire it, Gary said, "So, you want to start a new project on Saturday?" I don't know who this man is, but I like him!